AP Psych

Unit 2: Cognition 

  • 2.1a-Perception: influences on perception

    • Selective attention - have evolved to select what we need to focus on 

      • Told to focus on one thing and something else changes 

        • Cards 

        • Passing the ball 

      • Selective attention and accidents

    • Expectations contacts motivation and emotion 

      • Perpetual set - to explain the why we do something

        • context

        •  Motivation 

        •  emotion 

  • 75% assasashon areas that have to do will learned thing to handle ethic dilemmas 

  • 2.1b- Perception: perceptual organization and interpretation

    • Perpetual organization

      •  form perception

        •  Figure- ground = Organize

          • Visual field 

        •  Grouping = Organize

          • Gestalt - type of psychologise 

          • Organize stimuli into coherent groups 

        • 3 ways that we group 

          • Proximity - things that are closer together 

          • Similarity - white dots vs black dots

          • closure - likes to close things 

      •  depth perception- see how far things are 

        •  binocular cues- both eyes 

          • Convergence 

          • Retinal disparity 

        •  Mononocular cues - either eye 

      •  motion perception 

        • Perceived in the mind - similarly to depth 

        • How something is moving 

        • How fast something is moving 

      •  perceptual consistency 

        •  color and brightness consistencies - Color constancy  

        •  shape and size consistencies - shape consistency  

  • 2.2a-Thinking problem solving judgments and decision making: Concepts and creativity

    • Concepts 

      • Prototype

    •  thinking creatively

      • This is something that only humans can do 

    • Different thinking 

      • Convergent - pick the best solution 

      • Divergent - real world problem solving 

  • 2.2b- Thinking problem solving judgments and decision making:Solving problems and making decisions 

    •  problem solving strategies and obstacles

    •  forming good and bad decisions and judgments

      •  too quick but risky shortcuts

      •  Overconfidence 

        • Don't dedicate enough time, resources or effort 

      •  belief perseverance

      •  the effects of framing

  • 2.3- Introduction to Memory

    •  studying memory - the core of this unit 

      • Needed for us to survive 

      • Recall is more difficult than recognition 

      • Releraining is studying 

      • All learning is useless if you can not retrieve it 

    • Types of memory 

      • Sensory - immediate, do not encode 

        • You smell something 

      • Short- term - briefly activated memory, do not encode 

        • Someone tells you a phone number 

        • Info is held here for a time 

          • If you don't want it, it leaves 

          • If you do, then it goes to long-term memory

      • Long-term - everything you know 

        • Archive of your childhood memories

        • Need to be able to retrieve from here 

      • Working - newer understanding of short-term memory 

        • If you want to use info, it needs to be in the working or short-term 

    • Atkinson and shiffrin - forced on how info passes through various types of storage 

      • Sensory → short-term → long-term 

  • 2.4- Encoding memories

    • Memory 

      • Explicit - stuff we can recite - declarative  

        • Multiplication facts 

      • Implicit - stuff we know but cant recite - nondeclarative 

        • How to ride a bike

    • Sensory memory - will be fleeting unless we encode it 

      • Iconic - visual stimuli

      • Ectopic - auditory stimuli

    • George Miller - student short term memory 

      • Can hold 7 pieces of info for about 30 seconds 

      • Younger adults have the best short term memory 

      • Multitasking is bad for memory 

    • Effortful processing 

      • increasing short-term memory capacity

      •  strategies

        •  Chunking - grouping 

        • Mnemonics - songs 

        • Hierarchies

        • Mental picture 

      •  Distributing practice

      •  levels of processing

      •  making material personality meaningful

  • 2.5- Storing memories

    •  retaining information in the brain - long term memory

      • No limit to how much you can remember

      •  the frontal lobe and hippocampus

        • explicit memory systems

        • Hippocampus = gets better with age

          • Memory consolidation = improved by better sleep 

      • Prefrontal cortex 

        • Working memory 

      •  the cerebellum and basal ganglia - older regions of the brain 

        •  implicate memory system

        • Ancestors needed them to survive 

      • The amygdala emotions and memories

        • Flashbulb memory 

          • Panic attacks 

          • Weddings 

          • Getting hurt   

        • Shared flashbulb memory 

          • JFK assasnashon 

          • 9/11 

          • Covid 

  • 2.6- Retrieving memories

    •  retrieval Clues

      •  Priming - retrieval cues 

        • Surronundings 

        • Time 

        • People 

        • Places 

        • mood

      •  context dependent memory

      •  State dependent memory

      •  serial position effect

    •  retrieval practice strategies

  • 2.7- Forgetting and other memories challenges

    •  Forgetting

      • Forgetting and the two track mind

        • Amnesia - extreme forgetting - both types effect explicit and episodic memories 

          • Anterograde - cant make new memories

          • Retrograde - cant remember past info 

      •  encoding failure - chose to let it leave 

        • Ebbinghaus - forget the most at first 

      •  storage decay 

      •  retrieval failure

        • Interference

          • Retroactive - new leaning takes that place of the old

          • Proactive -  too much info that you can't remember new things 

    • Memory construction errors

      •  misinformation and imaginative effects

        • Elizabeth Loftus - reconstruction in our memories 

        • Witness testimony - couple different scouts of the same thing 

      •  Source amnesia

        • Remember something but not where it came from 

      •  children's eyewitness recall

        • Most malleable - can be change - often incorrect 

  • 2.8a- Intelligence and achievements :Theories of Intelligence 

    •  Is intelligence one General ability?

    •  The cattell-horn-carrol  intelligence theory

    •  theories of multiple intelligences

      •  gardeners multiple intelligences

      •  Sternberg's three intelligence

      •  general intelligence grit and deliberate practice

    •  emotional intelligence

  • 2.8b- Intelligence and achievements: Assessing intelligence 

    •  early and modern tests of mental abilities

      •  Francis Galton: presuming hereditary genius

      •  Alfred binet: predicting School achievement

      •  Lewis terman: measuring innate intelligence

      •  David Wechsler:  testing separate strengths

    •  three tests of a” good” test

      •  Was the test standardized?

      •  Is the test reliable?

      •  Is the test valid? 

  • 2.8c- Intelligence and achievements: Stability of and influence on intelligence 

    • Intelligence across the lifespan

      •  stability or change?

        •  aging and intelligence

    •  genetic and environmental influences on intelligence

      •  heredity and intelligence

      •  environment and intelligence

      •  Gene environment interactions

        •  growth mindset

        •  fixed mindset

  • 2.8d-Intelligence and achievements: Group differences and the question of bias 

    • Group differences in intelligence test scores

      •  gender related similarities and differences

      •  racial and ethnic similarities and differences

      •  the question of bias

      •  test takers expectations 

Key terms 

  • 2.1a

    • Selective attentioning- Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

    • Intentional blindness - Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere - passing the ball 

    • Change blindness- failing to notice changes in the environment a form of intentional blindness - cards - an object that changes into a different object 

    • Perceptual set - A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another 

  • 2.1b

    • Gestalt - an organization whole.Gestalt psychologists emphasize our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful holes 

    • Figure-ground the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)

    • Grouping -  the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups 

    • Depth perception - the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional allows us to judge distance 

    • Visual Cliff - a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals 

    • Binocular cure-  a depth cure such as retinal disparity that depends on the use of two eyes 

    • convergence - A cure to nearby objects distance enabled by the brains Combining retinal Imaging 

    • Retinal disparity - a binocular cure for perceived depth by comparing retinal images from the two eyes the brain computes distance the greater the disparity between the two images the closer the object 

    • Monocular cue -depth cue such as interposition or a linear perception available to either I alone 

    • stroboscopic movements-  an illustration of continuous movement as in a motion picture experienced when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still  images 

    • Phi phenomenon - in illustration of movement created when two or more adjacent light blink on and off in quick succession

    • Autokinetic effect -the illusory movement of a still spot of light  in a dark room 

    • Perceptual consistency - perceiving objects as unchanging having consistent color brightness shape and size even as illumination and retinal image change 

    • Color consistency -  perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color even if changing elimination Alters the wavelengths reflected by the objects 

    • Perceptual adoption - the ability to adjust to change sensory input including an artificially displayed or even inverted visual field 

  • 2.2a

    • Cognition - all the mental activities associated with thinking knowing remembering and communication 

    • Metacognition -cognition about our cognition keeping track of an evaluating our mental process - only humans can do this 

    • Concept - a mental grouping of similar objects events ideas or people 

    • Prototype -  a mental image or best example of a category matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for certain items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird such as a crow )

    • Schema- a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information 

    • Assimilation - interpreting or new experiences in terms of our existing schemas 

    • Accommodation - adapting our current schemas (understandings) to incorporate new information 

    • Creativity - the ability to process new and valuable ideas 

    • Convergent thinking - narrowing the available problems solutions to determine the single best solution 

    • Divergent thinking- expanding the number of possible problem Solutions creative thinking that diverges in different directions 

  • 2.2b

    • Executive functions - cognitive skills that work together enabling us to generate organize plan and Implement goal-directed Behavior  - People with ADHD and autism are often said to have bad executive functioning

    • Algorithm - a metallical logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem contrast with the usually speedier but also more error-prone use of  heuristics - computer 

    • Heuristics - A simple thinking strategy a mental shortcut that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently usually speedier than but also more error-prone than algorithm - human type of algorithm 

    • Fixation-  in cognition the inability to see a problem from A New Perspective an obstacle to problem solving 

    • Mental set - a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way often a way that has been successful in the past 

    • Intuition  - an effortless immediate automatic feeling or thought as contrasts with explicit conscious to reasoning 

    • Representativeness heuristic -Judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent or match particular prototypes may lead to us ignoring other relevant information 

    • Available heuristic - Judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory if instance is come readily to mind perhaps because of their vividness we presume such events are common 

    • Overconfidence - the tendency to be more confident than correct to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments 

    • Belief perseverance -  the Persistence of One initial concept even after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited 

    • Framing -the way an issue is posed how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments 

    • Nudge -  framing choices in a way that encourage people to make beneficial decisions 

  • 2.3

    • Memory-  the Persistence of learning over time throughout the encoding storage and retrieval of information 

    • Recall - measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier as on a fill in the blank test 

    • Recognition a measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned as on a multiple-choice test 

    • Relearning - a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again 

    • Encoding- the process of getting information into the memory system for example by extracting meaning 

    • Storage - the process of retaining encoded information over time 

    • Retrieval - the process of getting information out of a memory storing 

    • Parallel processing - processing multiple aspects of a stimulus or problem simultaneously 

    • Sensory memory - the immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory systems 

    • Short-term memory - briefly activated memory of a few items such as digits of a phone number while calling that is later stored or forgotten 

    • Long-term memory - the relative permanence and Limitless Archives of the memory system includes knowledge skills and experiences 

    • Working memory-  a newer understanding of short-term memory conscious active processing of both incoming sensory information and information retrieved from long-term memory 

    • Central executive -  a memory component that coordinates the activities of the phonological Loop and visuospatial  sketchpad

    • Phonological Loop - A memory component that briefly holds auditory information 

    •  visuospatial  sketchpad - A memory component that briefly holds information about objects appearance and location in space

    • Neurogenesis - the formation of new neurons

    • Long-term potential (LTP)- and increase in nerve cells firing potential after brief rapid stimulus a neutral basis for Learning and memory 

  • 2.4

    • Explicit memory - retaliation of facts and experiences that we can consciously know and declare also known as declarative memory 

    • Effortful processing - encoding that requires attention and conscious effort 

    • Automatic processing - unconscious encoding of incidental information such as space time and frequency and of familiar or well learned information such as sounds smells and word meetings 

    • Implicit memory -orientation of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection also called non-declarative memory 

    • Ionic memory -  a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli a photographic or picture image memory lasting no more than a few tenseconds 

    • Echoic memory- a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli if attention is elsewhere sounds and words can still be recalled within three or four seconds

    • Chucking - organizing items into familiar manageable units often occurs automatically 

    • Mnemonics - Memory aids especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices 

    • Spacing effect the tendency for distributional studies or practice to yield better long-term retention then is achieved through mace study or practice 

    • Testing effect-  enhanced memory after retrieving rather than simply rereading information

    • Shallow processing- encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words 

    •  Deep processing - encoding somatically based on the meaning of words tends to yield the best retention 

  • 2.5

    • Somatic memory - explicit memory of facts and general knowledge one of our two conscious memory systems 

    • Episodic memory - Explicit memory of her personality experienced event one of our two conscious memory systems 

    • Hippocampus -in nuclear Central located in the limbic system helps process explicit memories of facts and events for storage 

    • Memory consolidation - The neutral storage of long-term memory 

    • Flashbulb memory - a clear memory of an emotional significant moment or event 

  • 2.6

    • Priming-  the activation often unconscious of particular Association in memory 

    • Encoding specificity principle - the idea that cues and contacts specify to a particular memory will be most affected and helping us recall it 

    • Mood concurrent - memory the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad moods 

    • serial position effect - are tendency to recall best the last items in a list initially a recency effect and the first items in a list after a delay a primary effect 

    • Interleaving -  a retrieval practice strategy that involves mixing the studies of different topics 

  • 2.7

    • Anterigram Amnesia-  an inability to form new memories 

    • Retrograde Amnesia- An inability to remember information from one's past 

    • Proactive interference-  the forward acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new information - too much info that you can't remember new things 

    • Retroactive interference- the backwards acting disruptive effect of newer learning on the recall of old information - new leaning takes that place of the old 

    • Repression- in psychoanalyst theory the basic defense mechanism that banishes from conscious anxiety arousing thoughts feelings and memories 

    • reconciliation -a process in which previously stored memories when retrieved are potentially altered before stored again 

    • Misinformation effect - occurs when a memory has been corrupted by misleading information 

    • Source Amnesia - faulty memory for how when or where information was learned or imagined as when Miss attributing information to a wrong source source Amnesia along with the misinformation effect is at the heart of many false memories 

    • Deja Vu - that Erie sense that “I've experienced this before” cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience 

  • 2.8a

    • Intelligence - the ability to learn from experience solve problems and use knowledge to adapt to new situations 

    • General intelligence (G)-  according to Spearman and others underlying all mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test  

    • Factor analysis - a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items called factors on a test used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlies a person's total score 

    • Fluid intelligence (GF)- are ability to reason speedily and abstractly tends to decrease with age especially during late adulthood 

    • Crystallized intelligence (GC)- are accumulated knowledge and verbal skills tend to increase with age 

    • Cattell- horn-Carol (CHC) Theory - The theory that our intelligence is based off G as well as specific abilities bridged by GF and GC 

    • savant syndrome-  a condition in which a person otherwise Limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill such as  drawing 

    • Grit-  in Psychology passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals 

    • Emotional intelligence-  the ability to perceive understand manage and use emotions 

  • 2.8b

    • Intelligence test- a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others using numerical scores 

    • Achievement test- a test designed to assess what a person has learn

    • Aptitude test-  a test designed to predict a person's future performance aptitude is the capacity to learn 

    • Mental age - a measure of intelligence test performed devised by Binet the level of performance typically associated with children of a certain chronological age just a child who does well as an average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of eight 

    • Stanford- binet -  the widely used American revision (by terman at Stanford University)of binet original IQ test 

    • Intelligent quotient (IQ)- defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to Chronicle age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus IQ = ma/ca x100) contemporary  intelligence test the average performance for a given age is assessed a score of 100 

    • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)- The wais and its companion versions for children are the most widely used intelligent test they contain verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests 

    • psychometrics- the scientific study of the measurement of human abilities attitudes and traits 

    • Standardization - defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with performance of a pre-tested group 

    • Normal curve -  the bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes most scores fall near the average and fewer and fewer scores Line near the extremes 

    • Flynn effect -the rise in intelligent test performance over time and across cultures 

    • Reliability - the extent to which a test yields consistent results as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test on alternating forms of the test and on retesting 

    • Validity -  the extent to which a test measures or predicts what is supposed to see (also predictive Validity)

    • Content Validity - The extent to which a test sample the behavior that is of Interest 

    • Construct Validity - How much a test measures a concept or trait 

    • Predictive Validity-  The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict it is a signed assessed by Computing the correlation between test scores and the criteria Behavior (also called criterion-related Validity)

  • 2.8c

    • Cross-sectional - study research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time 

    • Longitudinal study- research that follows and retests the same people over time 

    • Cohort -a group of people sharing common characteristics  such as being from a given time. 

    • Growth mindset- a focus on learning and growing rather than viewing abilities as fixed 

    • Fixed mindset-  the view that intelligence abilities and talents are  unchangeable even with effort 

  • 2.8d

    • Stereotype threat - a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype